Thursday, November 01, 2012

Returning to normal


Ridge Rd., Monaghan Twp., York County, Pennsylvania
In all the excitement over Hurricane Sandy, I forgot to mention that juncos have arrived in big numbers. The winter residents are now foraging all over Roundtop Mtn. and have even braved my feeders a time or two. It’s good to see them again.

One odd thing about the hurricane is that my feeder birds never went into the kind of feeding frenzy I see ahead of winter storms. Despite producing the lowest barometric pressure ever seen in the lower 48 states, the birds didn’t feed like crazy just ahead of or after the storm. The regular crew was here as they always are, but none of them fed with any greater urgency than usual, at least not to my eye.

It was really too dark this dark and dreary morning for a photo, but when I saw a momentary gleam of reddish sunlight touch the tops of the range to my north, I knew I had to try anyway. The reddish color didn’t last very long and within moments everything was gray again. Tomorrow might be the first day this area sees a bit of sun. I think everyone is more than ready for that.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Am a (very) late comer - had forgotten where you lived, and I was for past 4 days mainly on Facebook to keep up with people. You must be so relieved you came through like you did, without a tree falling on your house! Sure hope you have a storm shelter for disasters like these?

Carolyn H said...

A storm shelter? No, I don't have that. Around here no one does, so far as I know. We just hunker down and wait.

Pablo said...

No Sandy effects in my part of the Midwest, though it would have been nice to get some of that rain to help fill my lake.

I like your darkly lit photo.

Carolyn H said...

Pablo: I would have been glad to send you some of the nearly 6" of rain I had with Hurricane Sandy. Now why don't we spend federal dollars on something useful like a water pipeline to the dry states? We have oil and gas pipelines, why not some for water?